Ethernet has emerged as the technology of choice for local area networks (LAN). With speeds of 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps and soon 10 Gbps, Ethernet capacity has grown to meet the need for increased network capacities. Price, performance and simplicity have been the network values that Ethernet technology has offered. These have also resulted in the conception of Optical Ethernet networks where optical wavelengths are used as a backbone to carry encapsulated Ethernet packets. This marries the ubiquitous Ethernet with the enormous bandwidth of optical networks. Despite the inherent elegance of this conceptual network, actual implementation of such networks must devise physical and or logical arrangements to insure optimal performance, scalability, and operability.
Traditionally any to any connectivity offered in Virtual Private Networks between multiple customer sites is provided through provider provisioned network arrangement where customer sites are connected to Provider Edge devices. Such Provider Edge devices together emulate a layer 2 virtual bridge as specified by IEEE802.1D. While such arrangement works fine for a small sized VPLS service, such arrangement potentially creates scalability across signaling and data path, flexibility and maintenance issues. Other issues include limiting of service disruptions due to invalid/corrupt MAC addresses and easing the provisioning and troubleshooting.